Reply of the Danish Government on the public consultation on the
initiative on modernisation of trade defence instruments
The Danish government welcomes the initiative on modernisation oftrade defence instruments and is looking forward to the coming moderni-sation process and detailed discussions with Member States.The Danish government sees trade defence instruments as an importanttool in regulating international trade and securing fair global competitionaccording to WTO rules. However, it is the Danish position that the in-struments should be used with great caution. The Danish governmenttherefore believes that it is important that the modernisation process doesnot result in a reform of the instruments which lowers the standards forinitiating investigations and imposing measures.Predictability is important for the European industry when making busi-ness decisions. The Danish government therefore believes that it is im-portant that the modernisation process is used to increase transparencyand predictability of the investigations and investigation methods, for thebenefit of the European industry be it producers, importers or users of theproduct concerned.To ensure that the European Commission is able to conduct thorough in-vestigations, participation of the interested parties is of great importance.The Danish government therefore believes that it would be beneficial ifthe modernisation process could help making it easier for interested par-ties, be it producers, importers, users or exporters, to participate activelyin the investigations.Due to the increasing globalisation and its impact on the activities ofEuropean companies, the Danish government believes that the Union In-terest Test of the investigations is becoming increasingly important. Themodernisation process should therefore result in increased emphasis onthe Union Interest Test in all investigations including a systematic focuson and analysis of the global value chains of European companies.